When I signed up for the CitiBank Aadvantage credit card, I looked forward to writing a glowing report of how I earned a free flight across the world via an amazing promotion. Instead, I’m writing about a credit card company taking advantage of its customers — specifically, how Citibank screwed me out of 30,000 Aadvantage miles using deceptive and sneaky tactics.

In late August, I opened an AAdantage Citi Credit Card online after receiving an offer in the mail to earn 30,000 Aadvantage points after spending $1,000 in three months. I blogged about the fact that I had signed up for this promotion here.

While it has been good to me I am cancelling my SPG AMEX since the redemption values aren’t as good in South America as they are in Southeast Asia and the first annual fee is coming up. I’m replacing it with Citibank’s American Airlines card, for which I will earn a 30,000 mile signup bonus after I meet the mere $1,000 spend minimum. It does have a foreign transaction fee so it will be my backup card and I plan to meet the spend minimum with US-based, pre-trip purchases.

In order to ensure I’d meet the spend minimum within the specified three month time frame, I carefully planned my enrollment to coincide with some major pre-travel purchases I had coming up. As a self-employed young twenty something, my resources are limited and I plan my spending extremely carefully — it isn’t every day I have a grand available to throw into a new credit card promotion. I fastidiously monitored the account and cheered when I reached the $1,000 mark on September 25th. I had big plans for those points — a one way flight from NYC to Bangkok can be had for just 35,000 and I intended to use the bonus just for that. Considering that itinerary can rarely be found for less than $650 per ticket, I though this was going to be a big win for me.

I thought this card would bring me back here

In December, I logged into my AA account to start planning my 2014 travel and realized the bonus points were nowhere to be found. When I called Citi to see what was going on, I assumed it was a minor clerical error and things would soon be cleared up.

If only.

Citibank claimed that I had signed up for a different promotion, one that had a $3,000 spend minimum and yielded 50,000 reward points. Forgive me for being frank — this is total bullshit. This is not the offer I received, this is not the offer advertised all over the internet, and this is not an offer I would have accepted regardless — I never would have signed on for a card with such a high spend minimum, as I wouldn’t have been able to meet it in the allocated three month period.

As a matter of fact, I can’t even find the offer Citibank claims I signed up for. There are mentions of it on frequent flyer forums and blogs, but it doesn’t even show up when you look at Citibank’s own list of Aadvantage card offers.

For two months I gave Citibank every chance to show that this was an honest mistake by honoring the promotion that I know I signed up for. I sent them posts I had written about the offer, I sent screenshots of the offer in blogs I regularly read and comment on, and I spent hours hunched over my laptop Skyping with members of various departments. But there was one piece of what they claim was critical evidence which I couldn’t produce — the physical offer I received in the mail back in July. Not only was I not in my hometown to go rooting through my records, I know it wouldn’t have been there regardless — it never would have occurred to me to save a mailed credit card offer. Because of this, Citibank denied my appeal, a verdict they reached last week.

I am devastated. This incident has cost me 30,000 Aadvantage miles, hours of my life spent on hold, and the rewards I could have earned applying that $1,000 to my other credit card (which, by the way, I salute and endorse). Not to mention, even if I wanted to attempt this promotion again, I can’t — these offers are open only to first time card holders.

One area where I have to give Citibank credit is their social media team. They were responsive and compassionate and I truly believe they did everything they could to help me — and I believe they did that because they knew I was right. They offered me $100 credit and 5,000 Aadvantage miles in compensation. As my dad would say, it’s better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick — but it doesn’t come close to making up for the mistake Citibank made and refuses to correct.

As always, I am trying to learn from this. There is a stereotype that credit card companies exist to prey on and take advantage of their customers. Thus far, my experiences with Capital One and AMEX have been positive, and perhaps that made me naive. Recently, I have spoken to several others who went through this exact same battle with their credit card companies over misapplied promotions! From now forward, I will take massive precautions when applying for a new rewards card, and I encourage you to protect yourself by doing the same:

• File and keep all credit card offer received by mail.

• Document all credit card offers you receive with date-stamped photos and screenshots.

• After enrolling and before making your first purchase, call your credit card company and confirm your rewards offer — record this phone call.

• Once you meet the minimum, ask how long it will take for your points or other rewards to appear in your account and start monitoring the account around that time to ensure everything went smoothly.

Shame on Citibank for not honoring the promotion I signed up for — one that is still being heavily promoted. In the end, I think Citibank is the real loser here. When I find a brand I love, I’m a devoted and enthusiastic customer — and they lost the chance to have me as one. I’m sharing my story in the hopes that no one else wastes their time and hard-earned money like I did, so I’d appreciate if you help me spread the word by tagging @citi. Citibank has already handed down my verdict, and there is nothing I can do to appeal further. But I can try to protect others from similar deceptive business practices.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a credit card to cancel.

Update: Thanks to a comment I received on this post in late May, I filed a complaint against Citibank with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. As three months had passed since I gave up on the ordeal I had zero expectations but still wanted Citibank held responsible and considering the evidence I had compiled for this post, putting together a case was easy. The first week of June, I received news that Citibank had decided to honor the promotion I signed up for and my points were on their way! I didn’t quite believe it until I saw them show up in my account six weeks later. I’m so grateful to the CFPB for looking out for the little guy (me!) and highly recommend that others who encounter this issue reach out to them as soon as possible.

That is disgusting business practice. I am so glad you shared your story and saved others from the same fate. I hope Citibank doesn’t underestimate the power of word of mouth — especially one who’s voice reaches at least 23,000 readers 🙂

What really shocked me while I was working on this post was learning about others who have been through this same situation with various different credit card companies. As consumers, we need to protect ourselves. I’m happy I can help spread the word.

That’s awful! I signed up for that same Citi card and will def be checking that I received my miles. It’s ridiculous that you can show them proof of the promotion you knew you had and they still won’t give it to you. They should just give it to you regardless since you met the requirement. Thanks for sharing your story though, and I will be checking on my account now!Taylor recently posted..Expenses so far….

I hope all goes well for you, Taylor — but definitely give it a check. The sad thing is, had I realized in time I could have ATTEMPTED to meet the requirement, somehow…. (though it probably would have involved having my parents or sisters make a major purchase on my card, ha!)

I am so, so sorry you went through this! I would be livid (and have been screwed over in similar ways before on a lesser scale, so empathise completely!). I hope something wonderful comes from this post for you 🙂

Well, I’ve pretty much given up on my case — it was taken to “the highest channels possible,” I was told. So there is nothing I can do for myself. But I do want to help others avoid the same fate! Thanks for your support Lela!

Thanks Andi, I hope they see it too, at least so they know there are repercussions to their deception. However, I am under no illusion that this post will change their practices. All we can do is better protect ourselves as consumers.

I can highly recommend Capital One Venture as a travel rewards card. While I have occasionally been frustrated by their over the phone customer service, they have never pulled anything like this, and when they have made minor billing mistakes they corrected them immediately. Plus, the rewards are amazing and so easy to redeem!

Wow, that is incredibly crappy news. Citibank made a huge mistake denying such a claim to someone who has a platform to publicize this stuff! This is a pretty timely post since I just signed up for a Chase Marriott Rewards Visa with a pretty awesome offer (I think you’ve blogged about it too) and I am hoping to take advantage of the points on an upcoming trip; I really hope it ends up going through!

Hey Cat, I recommend giving the bank a call to make sure all is going smoothly. I want you to get those points too 🙂 And like I said in the post I had a really great experience with the social media team at Citi and really appreciated having them to reach out to throughout this experience, so I gave them fair warning I was going to write this post. Honestly, I think they are such a big company they aren’t worried in the slightest about one customer speaking out, regardless of the reach of their voice.

I can’t believe they denied your appeal because you couldn’t produce the physical letter that they sent you (and thousands, if not millions of others) in the mail. I would never have thought to photograph or save such a letter for months.

I trash all offers, and don’t get involved with collecting points and miles because I don’t want to feel manipulated into spending money I wouldn’t otherwise in order to earn miles.

All I use is a Capital One no hassles credit card which is more for the no foreign transaction fee than the rewards. But at least now I know to better document any deals I may try and take advantage of in the future. Sorry to hear how much trouble this has caused you.Dave recently posted..Visiting Pearl Harbor in Hawaii

I LOVE Capital One Venture. It is my primary credit card and I can’t say enough positive things about the benefits I’ve reaped from it. As for the physical letter, um, yeah. At one point I was told that the marketing department was going through its country-wide mailing lists to find out exactly what offers were sent to my address…. I was highly skeptical, to say the least.

ALWAYS make hard-copy, on-paper, real-life copies of stuff like this. The Internet exists in a fungible, unreal, come-and-go world. What is there one minute is not there the next. Anything in the ethereal world of cyberspace can be made to disappear. Which is what appears to have happened to your 30,000-mile, $1,000 come-one.
Make old-fashioned, real-life copies.

I guess I grew up in the internet age… I don’t get or keep hard copies of anything! All my banking is online so it never would have occurred to me to save what was little more than junk mail. But lesson learned, obviously 🙂

I’m having major issue with citibank and their “security measures.” I have an account that is used to pay my fixed expenses- I put just enough in there each month so that I don’t have to worry and it has emergency funds attached to it. So… I don’t want a debit card for it. But they insist I have mohave one, and they hate Mint. Got locked out for the fourth time, so I caved and went and got a debit card so I could at least see my balance.
But I can’t. Why? They want me to type MY ENTIRE ACCOUNT NUMBER to log back in. I’m like you- why would I keep paper statements around the house? I just log in to keep track. So… I can’t GET my account number because I CAN’t SiIGN IN without it.

Thanks Alan, appreciate your support. I am under no illusions that anything I could do would really hit Citibank where it hurts (AKA, the bottom line) but I do believe I can help others protect themselves from this kind of nonsense.

Shame on Citi Bank!!
I cannot believe others have been in the same situation. I am not a big fan of credit cards but I can definitely see how beneficial it can be.Daisy Wong recently posted..Why I am scared to visit Hong Kong

I still believe credit cards can be amazingly beneficial. My Capital One Venture card has been a fantastic travel companion over the years! But this situation was an example of the worst side of the industry — a big corporation taking advantage of one of its little guy customers.

Shame on Citibank!!!!! At the end of the day, after all you went through, the RIGHT thing for them to do, no matter what, would have been to switch you over to the program you thought you had signed up for. As so many others have already said, the power of the word goes far these days. I have a Capital One business card, have used it (and my miles I earn!) easily for years now. Happy travels, Alex!

I use Capital One Venture as my primary card and can’t believe how easy points are to earn and redeem! I really love that card. And I agree, part of what left me reeling about their decision was how it would cost them virtually nothing and it would make all the difference to me. What they spent in paying employees to answer my calls and chase down this case amounts to more than whatever they would have incurred giving me the miles.

Aw Alex, what a bummer. I feel like a hear a lot about credit card companies in the US ripping people off. We have a completely different banking system in Canada so I hope I don’t run into this!! Shame on Citi indeed.Rika | Cubicle Throwdown recently posted..Roatan Rent: What $300/month Gets You

Ha, yeah I was chatting to one of my Australian friends about this and he was like, “But duh it’s a scam….? Only Americans think they can win at these things.” I’ve always felt lucky about our great rewards card systems in the past but this definitely showed me the dark side.

What a crappy outcome. I’m sorry. ;-( The right thing to do would be for them to honor the miles. What’s it to them? A few extra miles won’t change their bottom line but will make your day. I hope they see this and change their tune…. fingers crossed.Diane recently posted..Rainy day essentials for surviving France weather

That’s what boggled my mind as well. I just can’t imagine what they got out of this — a pissed off, angry consumer, two months worth of “investigations” and phone calls, and a expository blog post! All rather than correct their own mistake.

Bravo for taking a stand! Far too often people think it is ok to take advantage of others, and I too have experienced it, both in the form of big corporations like CitiBank, and even fellow bloggers. I like to think that where our own efforts fall short in rectifying these wrongs, in the end karma will step in and finish the job for us. And of course a well-written blog post like this doesn’t hurt either 🙂Hannah recently posted..Free printout | Thank you cards

Great post! I am looking for a new card only for the sign up miles I can get. I have a Amex delta card that i have had for years with 130,000 miles on it. Never have had paid a penny in interest. Looking for two tickets to HI in 2015 and am weighing all options.. There are many out there but it is hard to figure out what is the best deal… What are your thoughts on Barclay Card wih the 40,000 mile offer…again great post.

Hey Bob, I have never looked into the Barclay Card myself but I do recommend doing a search on thepointsguy.com and seeing what he has to say about it! I’ve seen the author speak and he definitely knows what he is talking about. Best of luck — and enjoy Hawaii!

Two words: Capitalist bastards! Excuse my French, but that really makes me angry. The banks are the reason for the world economic crises and they still get away with murder. Consider this post shared! I am all for naming and shaming!tammyonthemove recently posted..Making merry at the world’s highest micro-brewery

This is horrible! Shame on Citibank. I must give you a big THANK YOU for sharing your experience us so that we don’t make the same mistake. Thanks to you, I know to be extra careful and cautious from now on. They definitely messed with the wrong person, too!

Thanks Jen. I have been very open and positive about my (minimal) experiences with travel hacking, so I knew when I had my first major negative experience I had to share that side of it too. I will definitely look at promotions with eyes wide open from here forward.

I used to have Citi – way back in the day. However, when they started their foreign transaction practices, I dropped them like radioactive dung.

Since then, I’ve been with CapitalOne and have had nothing but praise. They have some of the best FOREX rates when abroad and really came through for me.

I was trying to buy tickets with Air Asia and my card wasn’t being accepted by the local branch. Seems they didn’t want to use an international credit card. I told CapitalOne my problem and even though they didn’t conduct the transaction, gave me points anyway.

I too am extremely happy with Capital One. While I think they could step up their customer call lines (though to be fair I’m comparing them to my Charles Schwab and TDBank, where I have debit accounts, which are just beyond amazing) I am extremely loyal to my Capital One Venture card. I loooove it. That is an amazing story about the flight — seriously that is great customer service!

I too have really only heard about the positives — that’s why I was so surprised to hear friends confess they’d had the same situation in the past with their own sign-up bonuses. I can only imagine how widespread it really is.

Hey Sofie, actually I’ve spoken to at least two other bloggers this has happened to (one of them is a huge one!). They have chosen not to blog about it for their own personal reasons… I wish they would, though!

Really?
Wow, I must say that surprises me.
Now, I can imagine that they had their reasons, but still. Credit card sign-ups are so heavily promoted in the travel community that I do believe it should be mentioned that things can also go wrong.

I agree, I was really shocked when I started hearing from so many others who this had happened to. No wonder the credit card companies are still getting away with it — they have no one to be accountable to.

How infuriating! It’s times like that this where it’s nice to have an active audience of 23,000 to vent this to. But seriously what a shame that multinational corporations with all the resources in the world to amend their mistake, (if it indeed was a mistake, which I’m sure it wasn’t), greedily refuses to set things right.Sam recently posted..Raw Blueberry, Macadamia & Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Cake

Venting does help 🙂 But honestly, I am under no illusion that this post will ruffle Citi’s feathers. After my experience with them, in which I gave them every opportunity to show they made an honest mistake and they refused, I see that they are not even pretending to go to bat for their customers. I do hope that I can help other travelers protect themselves.

this is obnoxious & i’m tweeting about it right now. how frustrating that we must document our dealings with financial institutions with lawyer-level diligence. thank god for the internet, enabling us to share this sort of info & take down the wrongdoers.becky hutner recently posted..Fashion ‘Round the World: What people wore in Jan ’14

This isn’t the first time I’ve had a situation like this (though it outweighs all others x100). Times when I call up a company like, “Um, didn’t you say if I did X that you’d do Y?” And their reply is, “Haha, check out the fine print on page 27 of the electronic form you ticked a box saying you read, sucka!”

That is so frustrating and I am sure made worse that you were away and traveling while trying to deal with it. I hate when those loopholes get the customer. Jerks!Emily recently posted..Walk the Pretty Streets of Cartagena

Yep, not a surprise. My dad has been Executive Platinum on American 10+ years in a row, but doesn’t have the Citi AAdvantage card anymore because of repeated problems. He’s now a happy and loyal AmEx cardholder (even after working for MasterCard for 20+ years).

Did you try going through the Better Business Bureau? That has worked for my husband and I in the past with credit card problems.

Sorry to hear this. I think if you have the proper documentation, you can win this case. I guess it depends how much time and hassle you want to put in.

In the future, when you receive your call, call them to activate the card AND to verify the offer on the account. Ask for the deadline to meet the requirements, and make sure you meet the spend requirement by that date. It is also convenient to meet the spend requirement before that date, such that you can call and ask them to verify that you have already met them. You have to be careful with the credit card games.

Hey Andres, the problem is that according to Citibank I don’t have the proper documentation :/ Also, I activated the card online — big mistake. I have definitely learned my lessons and you are right, you have to be careful.

Hey Alex! (Have been a reader for a while since your Vietnam posts but have been too shy to say hi until now)–so sorry that happened to you. I haven’t entered the whole credit card world yet, but this is good info to know!

While in Vietnam I travelled with a friend who was also trying to spend x amount of $$$ within a short period of time, which led to us charging everything on her card and paying her back with cash! It was crazy effort for her, and I can’t imagine how she would feel if she found that it had all gone to waste.Stephanie recently posted..My Vietnam Overview: Pros & Woes

Hey Stephanie! I’m so happy you de-lurked 🙂 It is definitely a huge effort when you’re trying to meet the spend minimums. I hold off on all but the most essential purchases in the weeks leading up to signing up for a new card, and have to be fastidious about using the card for everything (no cash!) It is a huge effort, and yes — such a waste.

Ugh, this suuuuuucks. Tony & I are thinking of signing up for a new card when we head back to the States this summer, though we’ll likely only do so if there is some kind of lucrative sign-up offer like the one you were promised (and then did not receive) here. We have been using a Chase Sapphire card, which we signed up for mostly because of the no foreign transaction fees and the big bonus we received for a minimum spend in the first 3 months, though thankfully there were no glitches getting that sorted (and the points almost entirely paid for our flights to Japan). If we do wind up signing up for something this summer (NOT Citibank, obviously), we’ll definitely follow the practices you’ve outlined.Steph (@ 20 Years Hence) recently posted..Kuala Lumpur Photo Walk: Pudu Market